Warren, Brown settle on super pact

Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren and Republican Sen. Scott Brown on Monday trumpeted their deal calling on third-party groups to stay off the airwaves in Massachusetts during their tightly contested Senate race.

But whether the first-of-its-kind pact amounts to much is another question entirely.

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The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee are not saying whether they’ll unilaterally disarm — and neither is the Republican-aligned Crossroads GPS, which has already pumped more than $1 million into a race that could determine which party controls the Senate after November. An official at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which has spent about $14,000 on online advertising, couldn’t be reached for comment.

The liberal League of Conservation Voters, which went up with just an ad buy just under $2 million attacking Brown’s environmental record, signaled on Monday that it would abide by the pact — for now.

“While we cannot take directions from any candidate on our independent activities, we are inclined to respect the People’s Pledge agreed to by Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown,” said Navin Nayak, the group’s senior vice president for campaigns. “And we hope that Scott Brown will honor his end of the deal when Crossroads and the Koch Brothers inevitably break it.”

Another liberal group, Rethink PAC, which runs the website RethinkBrown.com, said it would adhere to the agreement as well after spending $156,000 in online ads in November. But it left itself an opening to jump back in if other groups continued to make plays in the race.

“Rethink Brown will comply with this agreement between the two candidates, while continuing to educate the voters about the real Scott Brown record of working against Massachusetts’ values. We will suspend our advertising campaign, provided other third parties do the same,” the group said in a statement.

Republicans were privately giddy, believing that if Democratic-aligned groups disarm from the race, Brown would be well-positioned since Brown’s allies were outspent by about a 4-to-1 margin last year, officials say. But Democrats said that Warren is still working to bolster her name identity in the state, and if well-funded Republican machines like Crossroads stay off the air as the race tightens, it would be a major boon for Warren’s message.

“I don’t think it’s a total game-changer, but I think it matters,” said one top Republican operative active in the state.

The campaigns are seeking to dissuade outside groups from pumping money into the state by forcing a financial penalty on the candidate who benefits. Under their deal, the campaign benefiting from an outside ad must make a charitable contribution worth half of the ad’s costs within three days.